Officially Under the Thumb
by Neo the Saiyan angel
Summary: Drew wakes up several days after the events of The Game Starts. To his surprise, his employer isn't set to kill him for failing. Instead...   Second in a probable series of connected AU one-shot and short stories.
1. Chapter 1

"_Drewbie!"_

_A door was slammed, breaking the strangely tense silence._

"_Dreeeeewbie!"_

_Pleasant smells danced in the air. Maple, bacon, a bit of cinnamon, and coffee for the adults._

_A heavy knock rapped against the slightly ajar door of his room. "Drewbie, you'd better wakey-wakey. Don't want to miss the bus to schooo~oool."_

_School. What a pain, in several senses of the word. He hated it._

"_I…I'm not feeling so well!" he gave a strangled-sounding cry. "I think it was the soda pop I had last night."_

"_Again?" she said in a disapproving tone. "I swear, all that junk you eat…the fake colors and the added sugar…it can't be good for you."_

"_I guess not," he agreed._

"Are you gonna stop being a lazy ass and wake up?"

"What?" Drew stirred himself from his semi-slumber, the shock at having heard his mother use language like that too much to keep himself blind to the world. Opening his eyes and turning towards the door to his room, he got a big surprise.

"Hello there," Jade Flame said, an amused smirk gracing her face.

Naturally, he reacted in a logical manner.

"GAH!" Drew quickly began to backpedal. To his surprise, he was not in his childhood bed like he had thought. He tumbled to the ground and landed in an ungraceful tangle of bedsheets, limbs, and semi-grown vines that twisted around him protectively.

"Whoa, Junior!" Jade watched the swarm of vines surrounding him. She was suddenly reminded of the state of her jet and why exactly she wasn't going to try killing him…at least for today. "Put away the artillery. I just came to check on you."

"What?" The blue man was busy extracting himself from the mess, his vines hurting the process more than helping. "Check on me…?"

"You kinda hurt yourself doing that mission I sent you on," she replied, seeming to examine her nails without much care. "You know, the one you completely and utterly failed at. The one that I told you I was completely depending on you to finish so I could get other plans rolling. Remember?"

"Oh." Yeah, he was remembering now. He managed to tear the sheets off and, to his eternal embarrassment, found himself clad in a modern-day hospital gown. "Who…?"

"I did," the evil genius said. Her smirk did nothing to reassure. He nearly died when she added "So you're Jewish, eh?"

Blushing furiously, Drew tried to continue processing everything that happened…whenever ago and block out the now. They took over the Eiffel Tower. The police had come. He had fought Kim. His partner. And she…she really had tried to…

He shook, unable to truly process that tidbit.

"Here," Jade said as she tossed something at the younger man. Drew winced and held his arms up to brace for what he figured would be a painful and gruesome death. The only thing that kept the green woman's trinket from falling to the ground was a vine that whipped itself around to catch it.

The ex-agent was shaking, his nerves getting the best of him. He opened an eye experimentally and looked up at his employer to see if she was laughing in glee at his apparent demise. It would be appropriate since he'd failed so spectacularly, after all. To his surprise, she was staring at him in obvious disbelief. Her face twisted into a sneer.

"Glad you trust me too," she almost grunted as she turned away.

Drew blinked in confusion before looking at what his flowered vine had caught. Delicately held in its leafy grasp was what looked to be a tiara of some sort. It was made of a metallic green alloy that was marbled with wisps of black. It twisted around itself in a way resembling his own vines and met at a thin strip in what he assumed was the back. The front had a gold sigil that both sides of the headpiece twined around before meeting in the middle and forming what looked like a leafy S.

"Why are you giving me women's clothing?" the young man said incredulously.

His boss visibly flinched. As she turned, Drew realized that maybe, _just maybe_ angering the green dragon by questioning her was not a good idea.

"Do you ever _think_?" she growled as she tried to control her temper. "I give that sorta thing to _all_ my lieutenants."

The blue man blinked several times in surprise. From all the files that he had read, she didn't usually hesitate to kill the underlings that annoyed her like this.

"Why haven't you killed me?" he asked, unable to keep the question to himself.

"Are you deaf? Doy!" Jade walked over and gave him a dope slap, something he was intimately familiar with. "I just said I promoted you." The tiara ended up pulled out of his grasp as the green woman violently snatched it from his grasp. As she poked him in the face with the headpiece, Jade emphasized what she said in rhythm. "This. Is. A sign. To show. That. You. Are. My. Lieutenant!"

Completely nonplussed, Drew did nothing but stare as she shoved the tiara back into his hands and began to walk away. "But…" he struggled to say exactly what his strangely jumbled thoughts were all rambling at once. "…why? Why haven't you killed me? I wrecked your plan, your jet—"

"Hell yeah you broke my jet," the villainess grumbled.

"—and I absolutely failed at **every** task you gave me," the blue man continued, his voice rising in volume as he spoke. "So **why haven't you just gotten rid of me**?"

'_Very elegant questions_' he grumbled to himself.

Strangely, she paused on her way out. The room became eerily quiet as Drew waited for his answer. It wasn't that hard of a question, was it? The appropriate response would have been just to take those claws and swipe them across his face.

For her part, Jade was thinking about his oddly pathetic question. It wasn't that she didn't want to kill him, far from it. It was more she put quite a bit of effort into securing this particular person from Princess and she didn't want to make Kim outright hate her. This kid had been her partner for a year or so. You can't spend that much time with someone and not get some attachment.

Unless, of course, they're just pieces in the game. Unfortunately, Kimmie didn't think like that yet. Somehow the spy managed to get out of manipulating people to get her missions done. How was anyone's guess. Jade would bet most of her empire that it was that old hack Betty's doing.

Thinking carefully on how to word her answer, she replied, "I think you can still be of use to me. Just have to teach you a few things beyond the simple training you were given before."

Drew looked gobsmacked. "You…you're willing to give me more training?"

Shrugging, the green woman said, "Well why not? You just need to figure out how to get your weird little tentacles under better control and not be such a moron when people taunt you. Seriously, do you ever think about what people are saying to you and wonder why they would be saying them at that very moment?"

Jade had never thought much about tossing around promotions; while they were a mark of doom for a lot of evil organizations, she felt that they go to those who deserve them or who could be threats to her plans if they were not appeased. However, the way the blue man in front of her reacted to being told he was worth spending time on gave her a strangely warm feeling in her chest, like she had done something to be proud of.

She thoroughly squashed it. Developing anything like pride for anyone besides herself could hamper her efforts later. It did make her wonder about things over at Global Justice. Didn't any of them put any effort into training their agents?

With a reverence that the villainess had only seen in her purple brother when he caught himself in a mirror, her new minion put the formerly protested tiara on his head like it was a grand prize. It gleamed a metallic green under the fluorescent lights of the private infirmary save for a small spot, nearly invisible in the twined S that glowed red for a few seconds before fading away.

"Make sure not to take that thing off, you hear?" Jade ordered sternly. "Those goody-goods at GJ would just love to get their hands on it." It was with both a feeling of deep satisfaction and a sense of wrongness that she realized her psychological profile on this kid had been accurate. Desperate for attention, he would go with whatever got him recognized the fastest.

Of course, while she was _very_ good at mind games and mental puzzles, it always paid to have a bit of insurance if the Batman gambits failed. Which is why she always put some special-order mind control chips in the various tiaras she awarded her top-ranking minions. It just wouldn't do to have one of them get on a high horse and try to off her.

The boy looked up at her with a kind of strange joy that made her feel slightly sleazy in her practice. "O—Of course not!" He continued to give her a look like she was his childhood hero. A shudder went through her as she realized that was _exactly_ what he reminded her of.

A sudden urge to swipe that smile off his face with a fistful of plasma filled her, tinting her vision a tad black. '_Think of Pumpkin_' her inner voice commanded. '_This would no longer be a game to her if you were to kill her partner. NOTHING ever goes well for the villain that kills the partner._' With great patience and strength on her part, she turned her thoughts over to just what securing the tiara on his head meant.

Smiling at the thought of yet another superpowered punk that she could control with a phrase under her, she walked out of the room, making sure to tell the dunce guards outside the room to not let him leave until his guide came to get him. As she walked away, she activated the earpiece hidden in her hair to listen in on that particular room. It never hurt to cover all the bases.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Takes place a few days after 'The Game Starts'. Drew was unconscious the entire time. And yes, Jade did actually take care of him in those days. Grunt work, true, but leaked info could be dangerous (especially if Kim were to hear it). Dumb guards who wouldn't know or care why she's doing this personally helps to keep the secret. Goodness knows Kim would be all over the place if she heard an inkling of where her ex-partner was._

_Also, my bad. Totally put 'Begins' instead of 'Starts'. Dunno why I thought it was the other way around...anyway, fixed!  
_


	2. Chapter 2

"So is this okay?" Drew shifted slightly where he was standing. It felt odd to just be standing in the middle of a brightly-lit room on a giant X with the Jade Flame standing right in front of him. Maybe she had been lying earlier about forgiving him and was actually going to test some sort of weapon on him. Or throttle him herself.

To his shame, he unconsciously swallowed. His hand drifted up to his head where he once again repositioned the tiara she had given him a few hours before. It was a show of confidence, of his value. She didn't give those to just everyone. He'd checked.

"Just fine, Sport," Jade assured him as she stood in front of him on the edge of the large floor marker. "Where you stand doesn't actually matter. This is a training exercise. I have a feeling," she began to circle "that you've been holding out on us."

"I'm not a spy!" Drew suddenly burst, mostly from nerves making wonder if she thought just that.

"I know," she deadpanned. "You aren't any good at keeping secrets. _BUT_," Jade began to draw closer, making Drew wish she was walking toward him so he could take a nervous step back "you seem to have immense potential for being a great asset to me. Like I said earlier, you just need a bit more training."

"So you'll be training me now?" he asked with more hope than he'd wanted to show.

"First a skill assessment," the green woman replied, smiling an unpleasant smile. "When I give the word, which will be 'pineapple', I want you to start attacking me. No matter what I'm saying or doing at the moment. I want to see if you can actually pay attention when being mocked."

"I do just find when people are trying to distract me," he answered indignantly.

"Not from what I saw fighting Princess," Jade scoffed. "She played you like you were a well-tuned guitar."

"Nnnnnngh…"

"So let's see how you do when _I'm_ the one playing mind games. You think you can block me out enough to do what I instructed you to do?" she smirked.

What had she tol—oh. Right. Fight when she says pineapple. That shouldn't be too hard.

Suddenly, Jade was close. Closer than she had been a second ago and very much invading his personal bubble. He tried to back away but was blocked when she slid one hand around his middle and the other around his neck.

"You think you can ignore this?"

Drew could feel her hot breath on his face, in his ear, a nearly erotic effect doubled what with her hands casually slung across his shoulder and middle. But he wasn't supposed to get distracted. Had to wait for the codeword. It didn't matter how enticing she was; he had to pay attention.

"Don't you want to be the best? Prove how much better you are than what your compatriots had thought?" she skillfully prodded. A snicker ran through the chamber as Drew was unable to withhold his snort of contempt. "You know they didn't think you could do anything right. Otherwise why else would they have rejected you like a dead-end experiment?"

He very nearly retorted with his partner—the woman he had trusted his life with for a great deal of time—before his mind flashed back to the tower. The tranquilizers…

"…I don't know," Drew answered honestly. "Maybe I just wasn't cut out for spy work."

"And yet you've done well enough to warrant one of my highest ranks."

He hesitated briefly before saying "A bout of pity I don't understand."

Jade said something to him that he assumed was a reply. For some reason, he couldn't hear it right… And everything faded away…

The next thing he saw would be burned into his mind for several years to come.

He wasn't where he had remembered being before. No, instead he was standing mere inches from his employer. His hand was raised in a judo chop that was aimed at her jugular. The surprise at her not blocking him was answered when he saw her limbs nearly completely entwined in vines. Somehow, there was blood leaking from between the tendrils.

Then he noticed the vicious, gnarled thorns that studded his usually docile vines which had to be digging deeply into Jade's flesh.

"Ohgod! I'm so sorry!" he squeaked as he recalled the bloodied vines. In his haste, he forgot to set her down carefully. His eyes bulged in shock as the green woman was unceremoniously dropped to the floor. The only thing that kept her head from bouncing was her managing to land on her hands and knees at the last second.

"Geez… I haven't had my ass beaten like that since the last time I was in Cancun," Jade grumbled as she stood up. Drew winced as he saw the various slashes and gouges that covered the woman's body.

"Did…I did that?" he gasped as a few unconnected dots suddenly lined up. "But…I didn't even…How did I…?" Drew began to hyperventilate. Somehow he had lost his mind or something and beat his employer, nearly landing a possibly fatal blow. It was like how it had been in the jet when he got angry.

Suddenly he couldn't feel his hands or feet. He was lost in his mind, trying to sort out the information.

Did this mean he was a monster? _Was_ he a monster? He had just rampaged—_twice_—in less than a week. He'd assumed there would be side effects to the accidents he'd had in the GJ lab. But he'd never thought…

"Yes, you did do this. Obviously," Jade answered as she took stock of her various injuries. The casual tone just cut into him deeper.

"I—I—I think I should…nngh…what should I do?" Maybe GJ could help him…

"About what? Doing what I asked?"

"You didn't ask for me to cut you until you bled!" he snapped, surprising both of them. "You didn't ask—ask for me to…to…hurt you…"

"Tch. Figures. The more powerful ones are always the timid ones," she said, shaking her head.

"Timid? I'm not being timid! I just _**hurt **_you. You're bleeding all over! I can't even remember it. Why can't I remember it? It doesn't make sense. I was waiting for things to start, then things changed. Why did things change? I don't understand…" Drew rambled, slightly incoherent. He grabbed his middle in hopes of trying to make his stomach stop hurting.

"Drakken," Jade cooed, the strange sound calming him slightly as she walked over to him "Could it be that maybe, just maybe, you were so focused on doing what I asked that you blanked most of it out?"

"Blanked?"

"Of course!" she said. "A lot of my lieutenants are so gung-ho about proving my trust in them is deserved that they work until it all blurs together. It's quite common. I make sure only to pick those who have the desire to do their best for me. I tend to elicit…s_trong_ attachments in my underlings." An understanding smile graced her features as she faced Drew, grabbing his shoulders and squeezing them reassuringly. "You're just proving your loyalty to me."

He paused and considered it. It wasn't entirely unheard of for people to blank in the middle of a battle. Berserkers charged in blindly, ignoring pain and even life-ending damage to fight until they were unable to move. Impersonalizing an enemy blurred them all to a soldier and made it easier for them to be killed. Hard to have emotions for just another mannequin.

Was he a berserker type?

He searched Jade's face for any trace of a lie. To his surprise, her face seemed to be completely frank.

"I…I guess that must be it," he agreed lamely. He wasn't sure if it was or not, but it wasn't like he really knew what he was like in a knock-down, drag-out fight. With his partner he had been the distraction. Here, he was the fighter. And, apparently, a fairly vicious one at that.

"Good." Jade patted his head—a strange feeling, considering who she was and what he had just done to her—before heading for the door of the room. "I trust you'll be down in the lunchroom reserved for my lieutenants and myself for dinner?"

"Erm…I uh…I suppose…?"

"Excellent," she said cheerily, somehow both making Drew's skin crawl and his heart lighten at the care put into it. "Can't have my underlings skipping meals, especially after the grueling training session we just had." She straightened her mussed hair to emphasize the point.

Drew watched her leave, conflicting emotions warring in him. In all the briefings he had been present for in GJ, Jade was portrayed as being a vicious, bloodthirsty tyrant that killed everyone that was a liability as easy as tossing away a used tissue. Yet this woman that he had seen didn't portray any of those features.

In fact, she was quite…

He had, of course, had various musings—just simple ponderings and mental exercises if he were honest with himself—over what the world would be like under one ruler; most of the time it ended as a vicious dystopia led by a selfish monster. A scant few times, though, he imagined one person managing to pull everyone in the world together under one banner. A pipe dream, really.

But with Jade?

Maybe…

* * *

**A/N:**

_Never had planned on writing this. I was writing out a Drakkim drabble when this began poking me instead. So I wrote it out to add on to the one-shot which shall now not be a one-shot._

_Does Jade actually mean what she's said in this one? Drew thinks he knows. Curious as to you (the reader's) opinion._

_I'm starting to think that Drew might be a _bit_ overpowered.__  
_

_Thanks to **kgs-wy** for checking this over and fixing some word fumblings._

_**EDIT**: Due to the train of thought taking place in the reviews, I'm adding this note. This entire chapter is from Drew's point of view. Any conclusions drawn may or may not be true. Heck, that should be true for most stories what with unreliable narrators. But eh. Just reminding y'all...  
_


End file.
